Landsat 3

Artist's rendering of Landsat 3.
Launch
Date March 5, 1978
Vehicle Delta 2910
Site Vandenberg AFB
Orbit characteristics
Reference system WRS-1
Type sun-synchronous, near-polar
Altitude 917 km (570 mi)
Inclination 99.1°
Repeat cycle 18 days
Swath width 185 km (115 mi)
Equatorial
crossing time
9:30 AM +/- 15 minutes


History of Landsat 3

Landsat 3 is the third satellite of the Landsat program. It was launched on March 5th, 1978, with the primary goal of providing a global archive of satellite photos. Unlike later Landsats, Landsat 3 was managed solely by NASA. Landsat 3 is no longer in operation, due to technical failure. It finally ceased transmission on March 21st 1983, far beyond its designed life expectancy of one year.


Satellite Specifications

Landsat 3 had essentially the same design as Landsat 2. It carried a Multi-Spectral Scanner, which had a maximum 75m resolution. Unlike the previous two Landsat missions a thermal band was built into Landsat 3, but this instrument failed shortly after the satellite was deployed. Landsat 3 was placed into a polar orbit at about 920 kilometers, and took 18 days to cover the entire Earth's surface.


References:

- NASA, Landsat 3.
- Wikipedia, Landsat 3.